Who is using Windows 7 RC right now, instead of XP or Vista?? Supported?

Folks, the title's pretty much self-explanatory...

Do all of your apps work?? Please list which work for you, and which do not..

Very important to me is that Windows 7 RC is supported by Microsoft with updates, bug fixes, new drivers just like Vista (and XP still???) is/are?

In my case: Acronis TIA 2k9, Disk Director, SlingPlayer for Windows (the 2.0/2.1 one), BlackBerry DTM (all versions), Skype 3.8 & 4.0, PC Wizard 1871, DivX, Belarc, and browser-wise: Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome, iTunes 8.xx, Safari for Windows x64...Oh yea, most of the above are 32-bit, and they do just fine on 7 x64.

Drivers for every last piece of my equipment seem to be available, which is pretty cool.

 

All my favourite applications from 32 bit Vista are working OK on 7 64 bit, except for Acronis TI and Disk Director. I have asked Acronis about their plans, and I am assured that as soon as Windows 7 is finalised these two tools will be updated and available. (As an aside - I have never managed to get Spybot to work correctly in 7, so have changed to Malwarebytes.)
As for updates, bug fixes etc., 7 seems to be practically faultless on my machine, and I like the way it sets a restore point before installing an update. No update so far has caused a problem for me. Available updates for hardware, (eg. my two Canon printers, my Wacom pad)) were downloaded and installed during the Windows 7 installation process, so I would recommend that all hardware and accessories are plugged in during the installation of 7.

Roger

 

Coolness...Do you (or anyone else?? ) know if Microsoft basically already "supports" it in the way it does Vista?? I mean if XP still gets supported, then it doesn't sound so far-fetched. lol

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Hi CrunchDude,

Since you asked ; Yes and No.

I don't know if it's just a RC kinda thing or what, but, I've found quite a few things that leave me scratching my head.

For instance, my video card (Radeon 9100, 128MB AGP; 2 years old) works perfectly with XP, but not W7. I'm always getting a window saying something can't display properly, or function properly.

My sound card (Sound Blaster "” all updated) and, at every boot, there's an X by the speaker icon in the sys tray. I have to click on the icon, and click on the slider bar to make it go away. If I don't, it doesn't make any difference as I still get sound.

Those are just 2 things. There's more, but I'm still trying to find a "fix ". The few things that have me scratching my head (probably because I'm so used to XP and haven't been able to "learn" W7 yet) are, in no particular order:

Global setting for all files and folders (no individualizing View, Position, Size, etc.). I even tried the Vista Tweak, but no joy.

Icons don't display properly (if they can carry over "moricons.dll" from W3.11, why can't icons from W98 show, regardless of running Compatibility Mode?)

Explorer is very frustrating for me. In XP Explorer, when I click on a folder, it opens in the right pane; and if I click on a folder in the right pane, it'll open in a new window and I can close out and be back where I was. With W7, when I do the same thing, it opens in a new window and I can't get back to where I was. If you click the back arrow, you're back to the root of "C ", even if you were in "D ". You have to close out of Explorer and start over. And, yes, I've tried different settings.

Sleep (Standby) crashes and I have to do a hard reboot. This is something I really need because it gets hot here and I don't want to turn off my computer when the CPU is sitting at 140°.

Search is, well, I don't know what. Dumb? I search for a file that I'm looking at in Explorer and it says it can't find it. Or, if I do a __.* search, I'll get everything with __.* in it; even if it's in the middle of of a word.

Some shortcuts can't be edited from the Desktop. I have to go to where the original is and edit it from there.

SeaMonkey (1.1.17) and W7 don't play nice with certain e-mail programs.

1GB of RAM isn't enough.

There's more, but since I'm a meat-and-potatoes kinda user, I haven't seen anything in W7 that would justify having to buy "more\different" to use it. I can do the same things with XP quicker, faster and more easily than I can with W7.

The colors are pretty, though.

 

140 degrees is not that bad lol...In 64-bit, get ready for the temps to go up further into the 160's. That's one of the first things that I found irritating when I made the switch to x64. There have been no other issues for me and Vista x64, and Windows 7 x64 (dual boot..sorta kinda ).

Speaking of Vista. Is it safe to assume that you're one of the many folks who don't like Vista for one reason or another, and have run Windows XP for almost 3 years?? If so, I promise you, I'm solely curious as to why. If you did, how did/does your Vista system run in either 32 or 64-bit?

1GB is indeed not enough. Do you have a single stick, or two 512MB sticks occupying the memory slots?? To be safe, get 2GB, and yes, that eye candy IS nice. (<--- that's one thing you need more RAM for running it)

128MB video RAM is a tad on the low side, too. Do you have a laptop or a desktop?? With laptops, until last year, the graphics chips are always part of the motherboard, which blows. I'd love to upgrade mine, but cannot for that reason. I've had the idea of using the PCMCIA or Express slots for a video card. But I digress...

Also keep in mind that Windows 7 is not out yet. 10/22...just 4 months away. All you're running is the release candidate, so your particular problems may just resolve themselves and all you have to do is...wait. lol

A very happy 4th to a fellow Angeleno. I'm in Hollywood, too. Small world, huh?

 

Hi Chris,
As an ex-Vista lover, now on 7, I don't understand a couple of your points. Firstly, as Arie said, the CPU temperature is only what your machine produces, what does it run at in XP? My Athlon 64x2 2200 running in 7 64 bit idles at about 100 and rises to about 120 under stress. Same as in Vista 32 bit.
The folder question is odd! At the top right of the Explorer panel there is a small icon in the top of the window with a small black arrow pointing down. This gives the viewing choice, tiles, icons, list, etc. ie - No global setting is imposed.
How do you mean - icons don't display correctly? Mine do.
For your video card. Have you checked for an updated driver? Lots of cards had problems with 7, but I think that most have been resolved by the makers now, usually with a beta driver.
In the case of Explorer, this is the result of the change to the 'Libraries' idea, which is very intuitive when you get used to it. Click on a label in the left hand pane, say Downloads, and this will open in the right hand pane. If you then select a document it will open in the same Explorer window, or a browser. Clicking on the Back arrow will not take you to the root of C:\ but back to the Libraries node.

Roger

 

I installed Acronit TI Home 2009 with no problem. Have you tried installing it with the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" option?

Hank Arnold (MVP)

 

Yes, I tried everything Hank, before I called Acronis. The built in imaging seems to work OK but the process isn't as 'visible' as it is in TI, and I haven't tried a restore from it yet.

Roger

 

Hi Hank,

Tried another route! Downloaded the latest TI 2009 build (9796 - 6/24/2009). It installed perfectly, and works well, but now the known serial number problem has reared its ugly head, and I am again waiting for a response from Acronis.

Roger

 

I installed 9615. Good luck.

Hank Arnold (MVP)

 

Hi all,

@Roger:

Idling it's in the low 80's to mid 90's (depending on ambient temperature). Under heavy load (RealPlayer or WMP running, 3 to 4 browser windows open, composing a document, and everything else I do) the temp is about 130°. But with W7, the idle temp is mid 90's on up. And, just running one player or listening to LiveIreland, the temp goes to 140+°. Or if I just do internet chess, or backgammon, with no other apps open, the temp is in the 140+ range. Plus, internet games are extremely slow with W7 because I only have a 128MB video card (it is updated). However, with XP, no problems with display or speed. And, don't quote me on this, but I've heard that high temps may shorten a CPU's life.

And as far as the Explorer windows goes, I know what you're talking about with the "view" option (tiles, icons, details, etc.) but what I'm saying is that I want Explore in the expanded view and other folders (especially the Desktop folders) is to open in the un-expanded view, not full screen. And, when I'm in Explorer, if I click on Program Files and then click on the program's folder, it opens in another window and when I try to get back to where I was in Explorer, Program Files, the Back Button takes me to the root of "C ", not Explorer. I can post pictures if you want, but I'll check out the Library Mode, whatever that is. When I'm in W7 again, I'll re-post.

And as far as the icons not showing properly, what can I say? I've got a dictionary, a few games, icons I've snagged off the web, etc., that when I'm in W7 they show a square with, I don't know what on it. And, when I check out the icons on my slave XP drive, they don't show properly either. However, when I'm in XP, all the icons show properly on the W7 drive.

@CrunchDude:
Hail fellow Angeleno! I've been using XP since 2003. I didn't make the leap to Vista because I kinda figured it was an ME version until something else came out. I've got a Desktop and at this point, I'm not particularly fond of the idea that I have to spend more money on a video card, RAM, sound card, plus the cost of a new OS "” regardless of the discount "” just for the eye candy. I quit playing the "bragging rights" game for having the latest and greatest and fastest _____ a long time ago when I had a whopping 32MB of EDO memory!
By the by, in the next election there's going to be a proposition on the ballot I hope you'll support. It's to change the state motto from "The Golden State" to "The Land of Granola "; because everybody here is either a fruit, a nut or a flake.

 

Hi Arie,

I'm uncomfortable with running my processor close to it's max: Which W7 does and XP doesn't. And, updating my equipment isn't going to solve the heat issue.

About the video card, though, you mentioned "DirectX 9" and "WDDM 1.0 ". I ran dxdiagnosis and it showed everything as being turned on, accelerated, and "No problems found ". I couldn't find DX9 nor WDDM anywhere. All I found was "DDI Version 9 ".

Is that what you mean?

Also, in XP there's a button to click to test 3D, DirectDraw, etc., but in W7 there's no "test" button.

 

Hi Arie,

Thanks for the info. I've been looking everywhere except the right place.

Anyway, I found something interesting at one of the links:

"AGP 2X (3.3V), 4X (1.5V), 8X (0.8v) "

and was wondering if, off the top of your head, you know whether the "8X (0.8v) is referring to volts? I can overclock my card, but if it would do any good or not is another question.

Also, in the BIOS settings, I have the AGP Aperture set to 256MB. I've checked out what AGP Aperture means and I still don't have a clue. I have an option to set it to 512MB. Do you think that would help?

Thanks, again, Arie.

 

R.leale, note that Win 7 comes with it's own imaging tool:

http://www.intowindows.com/using-windows-7-image-backup-tool/

 

All of my apps work with Windows 7, but when I try to print Office 2003 docs to my Brother HL-1400 laser printer over my network I get trash. I can print the same documents opening them in OpenOffice. Brother says they will provide updated drivers when Win 7 is released to the public.